Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd packed into the New Jersey State House, Christie called on Congress to pass immediately a multibillion-dollar package of emergency aid in the aftermath of super storm Sandy — legislation that has been tied up in Washington. …

A Farleigh Dickinson University poll released Monday showed him with a 73 percent overall approval rating among registered New Jersey voters. And in a particularly encouraging sign for his re-election prospects, 62 percent of Democrats approved of the job Christie is doing in this deep-blue state. …

“See, some things are above politics,” he said to sustained applause. “Sandy was and is one of those things.”…

“Let’s put aside destructive politics in an election year,” he said. “Let’s put aside accusations and false charges for purely political advantage. Let’s work together to honor the memories of those lost in Sandy. Let’s put the needs of our most victimized citizens ahead of the partisan politics of the day. …

Call me cynical, but whenever anybody feels the needs to specifically reiterate how very truly and sincerely something is absolutely not in any way political, I say that’s usually a pretty great indicator of exactly how political it really is. Methinks thou doth protest too much, and this “could Christie be the rescuer the GOP really needs?” question is conveniently gaining a lot of steam.

He is just everywhere lately, and it certainly isn’t merely because of the continual coping with Sandy’s aftermath:

So, of course, the question is: Wily and savvy political planning in filling the “moderate, aisle-reaching, bold leader” role for which a lot of the country is clamoring in reaction to our gridlocked federal government, or is he walking down a path that will burn bridges with bona fide fiscal conservatives as well as alienating establishment types just a little too enthusiastically?

Blowback

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The Evangelical South is a welfare state that bleeds the North East dry and but when it comes time to helping out the people that subsidize them they vote no because they are all about “small” government.

TEPJoePa on January 9, 2013 at 4:13 PM

If the South is a “welfare state” as you say, it’s due to the fact that 59% of all Black Americans live in the South.

In our small 3-person office, all conservative, we don’t agree on a whole lot… I’m ‘too conservative for the GOP’ by my own label, while my coworkers are more typically NE conservatives.

And we all agree that Christie is dead to us.

Anecdotal evidence, but it very well may be that at least with the rapidly shrinking GOP conservative base, Christie is losing all credibility. If he wants to be centrist, great. I hope he pulls the GOP with him, so that we can get an actual conservative party in this country.

Not sure why the big fuss over Christie’s comments on Boehner. He only said publicly what conservatives are saying privately. Yes he’s been dealt a difficult hand, but he’s playing it terribly. Now apparently McConnell will give it a shot.

Secondly, Christie, like every elected official, is a politician. He’s unique, no question, but he’s doing what any elected official would do in an election year, especially a politician like him in a state like his. I still think he’ll be a strong candidate in a what we hope will be a great field for 2016.